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00:00We start off with a big story from the National Basketball Association today.
00:03Chicago Bulls looking for a new front office, also looking for a new head coach.
00:07Billy Donovan has decided to leave.
00:09He's exiting the Bulls.
00:10He went 226 and 256 while he was there, essentially saying it gives the organization a chance to pick their
00:17own new coach.
00:18But Donovan does say that he wants to continue to coach, whether that's in the NBA or college basketball remains
00:24to be seen,
00:24although most of the college gigs are taken at this point.
00:27We'll see what opens up for him in the NBA, if he decides to do that, maybe some TV as
00:32well.
00:32All right, let's get to the National Basketball Association playoff games last night.
00:36Indeed, the Atlanta Hawks are going to make this a series with the New York Knicks.
00:39They win 107 to 106, five and a half point road dogs.
00:43The Hawks were down 12 after three quarters and then came back all the way to win.
00:49CJ McCollum was the star.
00:50He had 32 points in the win.
00:53And certainly there was a lot of animosity in the game.
00:56And you know how that could go at Madison Square Garden.
00:58But McCollum said he ate it all up.
01:00CJ mentioned the admiration of the fans.
01:03How much do you feed off of that kind of animosity that you were getting?
01:06I love it.
01:07I love it.
01:08It's why we play the game.
01:10It's fun being in opposing arenas.
01:12When the buzzer sounds and it's quiet and you walk off the court, I think there's a level of mutual
01:20respect.
01:20It was a tough game against a good team on their home floor.
01:26And they're supposed to be passionate.
01:27And I think they do a great job of showing up consistently throughout the year.
01:30And I've been to games in the garden as a fan and watched.
01:33I've seen playoff games here.
01:34And it's a pleasure to be able to play here.
01:37And it's a pleasure to be able to walk off the court with a win.
01:39Josh, I guess for you, what specifically makes this loss sting other than it being a loss?
01:44Is there anything that I know you guys missed 10 free throws, 14 turnovers, which is kind of uncharacteristic.
01:50Anything specific?
01:54No, I mean, just all of it.
01:56You know, this is a game you should have won.
01:58And the playoffs, you can't give away games.
02:01So, you know, we all got to make sure we are locked in, watch the film of it, get better.
02:09And, you know, go in and battle for game three.
02:13Well, if one upset wasn't enough for you, if you stayed up, you got a second one.
02:17The Timberwolves beat the Nuggets yesterday.
02:20119-114, they won outright.
02:22Seven-and-a-half point road dogs thanks to Anthony Edwards, who had one of the biggest games in his
02:27playoff career.
02:2830 points, 10 rebounds, and he is the main reason the Timberwolves are now back in this series.
02:35Here's Chris Finch on his contribution.
02:37For Ant to deal with whatever he's dealing with his knee and kind of attack the way that he did,
02:42what did you see from him determination-wise tonight?
02:45Yeah, he was awesome, man.
02:46He was unbelievable.
02:47I think also in that period when we were down, you know, he was great on the bench, you know,
02:53great leadership, you know, positive.
02:57He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more.
03:01You know, he did that.
03:02He got off the ball when they put two on him, you know, to start the second quarter run.
03:08But, you know, then all the way, Dante makes the big three, they put two on the ball, you know,
03:13great play by Ant right there.
03:15So, I thought he was outstanding tonight in his floor game.
03:20Yeah, I mean, we just were not solid.
03:23I thought they attacked our feet.
03:25You know, Randall and the pick and rolls was tough.
03:28They moved the ball side to side, put us in rotations.
03:31We did a much better job.
03:33In the second half, we changed matchups and cross-matched a little bit and got out of the coverage we
03:37were in.
03:38You know, the coverage in the first game wasn't bad with that unit, and they did a better job.
03:42Give Minnesota credit.
03:44They attacked our feet.
03:45They got in the paint.
03:46Once they got in the paint, we were scrambling in rotations.
03:48We tried to zone them.
03:50That didn't go well either.
03:52And so, we eventually got to the cross-match, which was much better than the first two things we tried.
03:57So, give them credit.
03:58We had a great first quarter.
04:00They had a great second quarter.
04:01And the game basically restarted from there.
04:04All right.
04:04So, that series is tied at one.
04:06The Cleveland Cavaliers have taken the commanding 2-0 best-of-seven series over the Toronto Warriors.
04:12Raptors.
04:13They win 115-105.
04:16They were nine-and-a-half-point favorites, so the oddsmakers nailed this one very close.
04:21Donovan Mitchell had 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and James Harden had 28 points in the game.
04:27Despite everything the Raptors tried to do on defense, it certainly didn't work.
04:32And here's Kenny Atkinson on that.
04:34Yeah, they threw a lot of punches.
04:37They threw the kitchen sink at us.
04:39You know, gave us a lot of different looks.
04:46And, you know, I think they got it down to six or five, you know, got close there.
04:52But, you know, we kept our poise on both ends, right?
04:57Kept our poise.
04:59Obviously, Donovan and James closed it for us.
05:04But, you know, I thought our defense was kind of forced them to go small, right?
05:11Like, they had to get more shooters out there.
05:15So, but this is a real playoff win, right?
05:21Like, this is what the playoffs is about.
05:25They came at us.
05:26They came at us hard.
05:28And we responded.
05:30I thought that they had the right energy, right focus.
05:34I thought the fight was there.
05:35I'm really proud of our guys in the fight there.
05:39I really think it came down to turnovers.
05:42Turnovers really costed us.
05:44They scored 22 points out of that.
05:47That was a bunch of points in the paint there as well.
05:51You know, you have two exceptional players in Mitchell and Harden,
05:55how they're creating in isolations and in picker roles and how they play make.
06:00I think it was like four or five buzzer beaters that they scored tonight
06:04in a game that was a 10-point game.
06:06You know, so I think that we made a step forward.
06:11We learned a lot.
06:12I think the film is going to be very interesting for us to continue learning
06:16and figuring out this team.
06:17And we're going home now to get a win.
06:20We'll see the Defensive Player of the Year on the court tonight.
06:23Victor Wembayama ended up winning the Defensive Player of the Year,
06:2822 years old, youngest player to do so.
06:30Also, the Nets announced that Jordy Fernandez and his staff will stick around.
06:34Multi-year deal as Brooklyn is in that rebuild, hopefully getting out of it soon.
06:39Meanwhile, are the Los Angeles Dodgers happy with their offseason signing of Edwin Diaz?
06:44Well, not so much.
06:45A report yesterday says he's undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies in his throwing elbow.
06:50He'll miss months.
06:51The Philadelphia Phillies are up against it, folks.
06:55A team in the National League not named the Mets also struggling.
06:58Six losses in a row for Philly, and the Cubs win again.
07:03Here is Bryce Harper on losing 5-1.
07:07Are the Phillies reeling or not?
07:09On a bigger picture, how hard is it not to get demoralized losing 10-12?
07:15Yeah, I mean, it's not where you want to be, obviously.
07:17It's not, you know, where we thought we were going to be, you know, starting the season.
07:22But, you know, we can't really think about that.
07:25Got to, you know, flush things as quick as possible and get into tomorrow and, you know, part of the
07:31game.
07:31On a night like tonight, obviously the defense played a big part.
07:34Is the quality of contact you guys had something that you could, like, encourage and you could take it tomorrow
07:39at all?
07:39I think we've had that pretty lately.
07:42You know, I think, you know, a couple guys here and there, you know, had some pretty hard hit balls
07:48the last couple days and just hadn't fell.
07:50So, that's part of the game.
07:52You know, I think, obviously, we've got to win.
07:55You know, we've got to be better.
07:56We've got to win.
07:57We've got to be better on both sides of the ball.
08:00Yeah, just got to win games.
08:02Meanwhile, with the Phillies losing, the Braves just keep on rolling.
08:05They beat the Nationals 9-4 yesterday as road favorites.
08:09Matt Olsen hit a home run in that one.
08:11Also in the America League, the Blue Jays beat the Angels 5-2.
08:14Dillon sees five innings pitched, 12 strikeouts.
08:17Dodgers clobber the Rockies 12-3.
08:19And they win as road favorites.
08:21And the Astros get a win over the Guardians by a final of 9-2.
08:25Also on the ice yesterday, surprising result going on in that Battle of Pennsylvania.
08:29The Flyers beat the Penguins 3-0.
08:33They lead the series to zip.
08:36Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
08:38Great to catch up with Dustin Gawker as we have prediction markets.
08:41And I'm sure the NFL draft will be filled with some of those as well as he joins us now.
08:46And we know the outcome of this appearance.
08:48It'll be fun.
08:48Dustin joins us now to discuss that.
08:50Okay, Dustin.
08:51So the very latest from Congress, we've got a bunch of people getting together to actually talk
08:55about the future of prediction markets in our government, which doesn't happen quite often.
09:00What did we learn from that?
09:02Yeah, I mean, the backstory of this, we know from the past there's been more than a dozen
09:06bills introduced in Congress.
09:07But now we had a committee in the House, House Agricultural Committee, sit down with the
09:12Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman, Michael Selig.
09:15Now, this sounds really boring.
09:17But like you said, this is the first time Congress is really getting its teeth into prediction
09:21markets in this kind of unified setting where a bunch of people are asking questions about
09:25it, both Democrats and Republicans.
09:28We didn't learn a whole lot, I would say.
09:30We didn't also, nothing material is coming out of this.
09:32But it was like, there was a lot of talk about prediction markets.
09:35So if you're interested in this space, it was really interesting.
09:37The most interesting part was this exchange between Representative Gabe Vasquez and Selig,
09:42the chairman, saying, you've got a prop up saying, can you identify this?
09:47Here's a bet on the Colorado Rockies and the Houston Astros game.
09:51Can you tell the difference between a sports book and a prediction market?
09:54And Selig was quoted, I'm not an expert on identifying betting lines.
09:59Vasquez then goes on to say, these are kind of the same thing, right?
10:02This is the point of all this, that sports betting is happening via prediction markets
10:07and it looks a lot the same.
10:08So we had a lot of talk about that, a lot of talk about insider trading and what's going
10:13on.
10:13There's some accusations of the Trump administration doing some of the insider trading at Poly
10:18Market and other places.
10:19So it was this interesting insight into what's going on into the minds of some rank and file
10:24members of Congress who, again, we weren't talking about this three months ago in Congress.
10:29This is the part that's interesting, is that Congress and the highest levels of government
10:33are talking about prediction markets when this industry barely even existed really a year
10:38and a half ago.
10:39So really interesting to see the prediction markets take center stage and we get a little
10:43bit more insight.
10:44Will there be any activity?
10:45I'm bearish that we're going to see any bills passed or any of this, but there's going
10:49to still be talk and, you know, a lot of this is not, this issue is not going away on
10:53Capitol
10:53Hill or in Washington, D.C.
10:57All right.
10:57So, Dustin, so let's move along to prediction markets in terms of the leagues.
11:01We know that Major League Baseball just partnered up with Poly Market.
11:05The National Basketball Association, I thought, had a pretty strong partnership with a number
11:11of the sports betting companies.
11:12So, is it a conflict of interest for them to also take on a prediction market?
11:18And basically, how will the sports betting markets view this?
11:21Will they continue?
11:22Will they be out?
11:23Yeah.
11:24Yeah.
11:24I mean, the idea is this is a different category, just like Daily Fantasy is a different
11:28category, right?
11:29We have PrizePix and Underdog that offer, you know, our official Daily Fantasy sports partners
11:34of teams and leagues sometimes.
11:35So, yeah, the NBA front office sports reported that Calci and Poly Market have been talking
11:41on and off for a year and that some of these discussions have ramped up with a new chairman,
11:46Seelig, kind of helping discussions along.
11:49Yeah.
11:50It's a weird, it's a weird spot for sure, because sports books pay a lot of money to be sports
11:55betting partners of these companies.
11:57And now, you know, another category comes along that is not technically sports betting.
12:01You know, the NBA, Major League Baseball, all these, all these leagues are looking at
12:05this as a different type of category, even though, again, a lot of the same activity,
12:09sports betting is happening and all of that.
12:12So how close is the NBA?
12:13I don't know.
12:14It's like if they were going to get a deal, you guess you would have thought it would
12:16happen before the playoffs started.
12:18We're now underway, certainly maybe before next season.
12:22And as we've talked on this, on this show before, the leagues are in a rock and a hard
12:27place.
12:27So they can either kind of ignore this and wait it out and on the, on the legal front
12:31and see whether all this remains into the foreseeable future, or they have to deal with
12:36it now, get up, get some checks out of it.
12:39You know, work with the Cal sheet poly market and other prediction market operators on the
12:42integrity issue, which is a big deal.
12:44But the optics of this are obviously strange because, you know, there's all these, we've
12:49seen all these scandals around regulated sports betting recently and, you know, getting
12:53involved with more sports betting in the current, current landscape.
12:56Certainly optics are a little weird for the NBA and the other leagues, but they also are
13:00kind of damned if they do, damned if they don't, if they just let this happen or not.
13:04So we'll see where all this goes.
13:06You know, I'd say let's make, let's make a minus one 50 favorite.
13:10NBA does a deal with Cal sheet or poly market before next season.
13:13You want to, if you, if you want to take the other side of the pet, I'll, I'm booking
13:15it on Twitter.
13:17Okay.
13:18There you go.
13:18Dustin's at his own market there.
13:20Gawker market.
13:20All right.
13:22Let's break down the instant gratification of the prediction market world.
13:27We know that Bitcoin, very popular cryptocurrency.
13:31It goes up, it goes down, it goes in, it goes out.
13:33Sometimes it's a lot.
13:35Sometimes it goes down.
13:36Everybody's got an opinion on cryptocurrency and Bitcoin.
13:39And now you can bet on it or you can predict on it.
13:42But the funny part about this, Dustin is not predicting on it over a month period or a week
13:47period or a day period, or even an hour.
13:51Every 15 minutes you can place predictions on if Bitcoin goes up or down 15 minutes.
13:57Yeah.
13:58I mean, this is the wild world we live in, in prediction markets.
14:02The backstory here is like, like we always talk about a lot of prediction markets in the
14:06United States right now is sports.
14:08It's not, it's not a lot of everything else.
14:10It's been, you know, since the start of football season, it was something like 90% of volume
14:14at Cal Sheet, uh, has been on sports and football and basketball and everything else.
14:19Um, but crypto has really gotten big just over the last few months.
14:22And I kind of detailed this on my sub stack about how big it's gotten.
14:25It's now 10% of volume.
14:27And most of this is trading on Bitcoin.
14:29What will the price be today or at two o'clock today?
14:33Um, and then there's these ones that are 15 minute markets.
14:36Like, will it not the price you're saying, will it be up or down over the next 15 minute
14:40market, uh, 15 minutes.
14:42And there are, there are hundreds of millions of dollars being traded on this every week.
14:46If that sounds like a roulette spin to you, you're probably right.
14:50This is a lot like a casino game, but there are lots of people who are using this to arbitrage
14:55against other cryptocurrency markets or other prediction markets like poly market.
14:59Um, it's, it's just grown so much.
15:01Um, and poly market, you go to poly market, you can do five minute markets.
15:04We're probably going to get down to one minute markets at some point.
15:07I'd imagine if they don't already exist, I'm not sure if they do, but, um, this is, uh,
15:11you know, either the financialization of gambling or the gamblification of finance, whichever
15:15way you want to talk about it.
15:16Uh, this is where it's headed because yeah, the average person who's going on to bet on
15:20the weather, but coin will go up or down.
15:23Probably not hedging, probably not real interested in price discovery.
15:25They're, they're flipping a coin and hoping that they, they make some money on whether Bitcoin
15:29will go up or down.
15:30We'll see, we'll see, but we're going to see more and more of this kind of casino
15:33fication.
15:33I think of prediction markets as time goes on.
15:37Heads or tails in the Superbowl was, uh, something that we got this pretty similar,
15:41I think.
15:42All right, Dustin, we'll check out the podcast and sub stack and see you again next week.
15:45Thanks for coming on.
15:46Cheers.
15:47Thanks, Greg.
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